250th Blues app leaves "negative feeling" for Timlin

Following the defeat to Fleetwood Town, Michael Timlin offered an honest assessment on the current situation Blues find themselves in.

Here is what the midfielder - who was making his 250th appearance for Southend on Saturday - had to say.

On the defeat…

It’s extremely disappointing not to get something from the game but realistically, in the second half we weren’t good enough. In the first half I felt as though our team shape worked, we played some decent football at times and we probably needed to score in that first half.

Once the second half came it felt like we probably didn’t get going and once they scored it knocked us back and we didn’t seem to recover from it. They made their shape work to the effect that we didn’t seem to get close to anyone at times and then we resorted to, you could call it, hopeful balls at times.

Overall in the second half it wasn’t good enough. The boys are frustrated, so is the manager. We know the fans are raging, we can hear them voicing their opinions during the game and they have got a right to, because it hasn’t been good enough.

There’s always a bit of pressure playing for the play-offs, but pressure, as well now, comes from trying to avoid a relegation battle. I think we’ve got to realise now we’re actually in one. It’s come upon us very quickly without people taking notice. Everyone needs to stand up and be counted and put their best foot forward to scrap for every point we can get.

It’s extremely disappointing because, for me personally, it was a nice occasion to reach my 250th appearance for the club which I will always remember but it will always have a negative feeling for myself.

We know the fans are disappointed. Personally, I will always take the criticism and listen to what the fans are moaning about and what they’re raging about, but one thing I will always say is I will keep fighting for my team mates, fighting for the manager and most importantly, fighting for this club. I think every single player in this squad is of that mindset.

With the squad that we’ve got and the players that we’ve got individually and as a team, it doesn’t seem like we have contributed to what we should be doing this season.

We’re all fighting for the manager. Nobody is going against him. We have to look at ourselves individually because we’re not really doing it, and that was more so the case in the second half.

On if this is one of his biggest battles during his Southend United career…

Yeah of course. When you’re at the other end of the table and you’re fighting for promotion, that’s a lot of pressure, but it’s a nice pressure because you know what is ahead of you. At the end of the day, you’ve got to remind yourself even if it’s at the bottom of the table and you’re fighting to stay in the league, that’s the most important thing.

We can’t focus on the future, we have to focus on the present. We have to dust ourselves down and, it comes across too easy to say at times, but there’s always the next game. We have to make sure that we’re ready to fight for the next point that is available.

We go to Rochdale next and they’re in the same situation as us. It’s a game that we have to turn up and go and fight for every point because if we get rolled over it’s even harder for us.

We’ve always had a good, very strong away support and I would like to think that now the boys realise the situation we’re in, we go there for a huge battle.